


Chances and Changes

by BigFootGirl



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Bisexual Male Character, No Fluff, post episode 19x13
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-15
Updated: 2018-11-19
Packaged: 2019-08-23 22:29:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16627607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BigFootGirl/pseuds/BigFootGirl
Summary: After leaving the DA's office, Barba gets a new chance.





	1. A Second Chance

**Author's Note:**

> I finally watched 19x13 and I felt there was more to come with Barba's story.

“Counselor!”

Rafael Barba, recently of the New York City District Attorney’s Office, automatically turned at the call. He was going to have to get used to not being addressed by any salutation from his former occupation. However, as he turned around just before the door to his building, he was caught by surprise.

“Auggie Martins. It’s been a while.” He shook hands with the tall black man who had called out to him.

“Fifteen years is more than a while, Rafi,” the man replied.

“To what do I owe the sudden pleasure?”

“I heard through the grapevine that you were charged with murder, acquitted, and lost your job all in a month. Figured maybe you would be looking for something new. Can we speak in private?”

Rafael motioned that they should head into the building. The elevator ride to his apartment was quiet. It wasn’t until the two men were settled on the couch in his living room, glasses of scotch in hand, that he broke the silence.

“You said you thought I might be looking for something new. In truth, I have no idea what I’m looking for and I’m hesitant to even consider what you might be offering.”

Auggie took a sip of his drink. The two of them had come up together in the Brooklyn DA’s office, before Auggie had been headhunted by his old law professor and taken a job at the UN.

“I imagine that the last month has felt more like a year…”

“Try more like a century.”

“Well, I was talking it over with my boss, and she thinks you deserve a second chance. You’ve always been one hell of a lawyer.”

“What kind of job would the UN want to offer a disgraced former ADA?” Rafael asked before taking another sip.

“It’s not just the UN. It’s a joint operation with INTERPOL and the Hague. You’ve always been more heart than you care to admit, and you’ve got the resume to boot.”

“What’s the job, Augustus?” He was getting annoyed; Auggie had always been rather adept at getting under people’s skin.

“There’s an opening for a lawyer familiar with sex crimes. We’re beginning the process of investigating war crimes committed in Iraq and Afghanistan and you have all of the qualifications necessary to act as a legal investigator.”

“Sounds noble, but I don’t know.”

“Nobility was always your problem. That, and following the letter of the law. Promise me you’ll think about it.” Auggie finished his drink and placed the glass on the coffee table. “Thank you for listening. And the drink; you always did have older taste.”

“I think you mean ‘good’ taste. I’ll think it over.”

Auggie took a card case from his pocket and opened it, removing a white business card. “That’s all I ask. Here’s my card. Call me, no matter what decision you make. Fifteen years is too long to go between friendly drinks.”

“I’ll do that. Thank you for reaching out.” The two men hugged, before Rafael led him to the door.

*****

It only took Rafael two days before he pulled out the business card his friend had given him. Looking at the information neatly printed on its cardstock surface, he let out a sigh before opening the call app on his phone and dialing the numbers.

“Auggie? It’s Rafi. Can you set up a meeting with your boss?”


	2. Telling People

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rafael tells Olivia about his new job.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...I got hit by the plot bunnies and this story is now no longer a one shot.

“A joint task force? That’s great news, Rafa!” Olivia congratulated him as he kneeled next to her son, robot in hand sailing through the air to rescue the figurine Noah had declared to be the mayor.

“Yeah. It’s a great opportunity. From what I understand, they’re in need of someone who’s worked in the world of special victims. And it’s a second chance.”

Olivia nodded in understanding. The timing of his leaving the DA’s office wasn’t the greatest, with an acquittal for the death of an infant already at Death’s door fresh in the minds of all of New York’s law and order community.

“Uncle Rafa, look out! The space monster is after the mayor, still! You have to shoot him with the laser!” Noah startled the two adults with his story.

“Oh, no! We can’t have that! Take that space alien!” Rafael responded, his robot flying past the mayor figure while he made laser sounds and radio talk. The game continued on for a few more minutes until Olivia announced it was time for Noah to get ready for bed.

“Can Uncle Rafa tell me the story?” Noah asked twenty minutes later as Olivia handed her son his beloved Eddie the elephant.

“What story?” she asked him.

“The one about the evil goat! He told me it last time!” Noah replied, proud that he and his mother’s friend had a story that she didn’t know about.

“Okay, I’ll go ask him,” she said, before heading back to the living room where he was putting away the toys from their game. “You don’t have to do that, you know.”

He gave her a sheepish smile. “I know, but my mother always said that whoever is playing picks up the toys, and I was playing.”

“Noah wants you to tell him the story of the evil goat..?” she told/asked him, the evil goat bit slightly confusing her.

“It’s a story my abuelita would tell me when I was little.”

“So how does Noah know it?”

“That night I was over for dinner and you were called in on the Janice Collins case. Remember? I stayed until Lucy got here and Noah asked me for a story.”

Olivia nodded, remembering the case of the photographer’s assistant who was assaulted on her way home from a shoot. It had come up so close to Noah’s bedtime, and she had heard the girl’s panicked voice in the background of Fin’s call that night, so she had asked if Rafa would stay with Noah until his sitter got there, calling her as she was on her way out the door.

“I remember. Can I hear this story, too? It sounds exciting,” she told him.

“You’ll have to ask mi amigo; it is, after all, his story request.”

She chuckled. She planned on getting more information out of her friend regarding his new job after her son was asleep, but until then she only had one question.

“Just how evil _is_ this goat?”

“Oh, just you wait. You will not look at goats in the same way ever again.”


	3. Lyon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barba is now in France and ready to work!

Rafael Barba liked to think of himself as smart: book smart, street smart, social smart, it didn’t matter what it was, he was smart. Growing up bilingual had been a big advantage when he was told to choose a language for school.

Not Spanish, he spoke that at home with his parents and abuelita and all of their neighbors.

Not Portuguese, a language he had picked up the winter he was stuck at home with scarlet fever and had watched every foreign-language soap opera he could find. The same went for Mandarin and Korean.

Growing up in New York, even if it was just a small corner of the Bronx called Jerome Street, he heard dozens of languages every time he got on the subway.

So what language did he choose at his New York public high school? French. It didn’t hurt that both of his teachers, Madame Benoit and Monsieur Hernandez, were the hottest teachers at school. He may have had to keep his attraction to his own sex on the DL, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t going to look when provided the opportunity.

He had been on many a trip to French-speaking regions over the years. Over the border to Quebec when he was in college. To Haiti with his church on relief missions after hurricanes. Switzerland for Christmas during his first year in Manhattan. He was confident in his language abilities. Nothing, however, could have prepared him for his orientation at INTERPOL headquarters in Lyon, France.

He gave up on being able to efficiently communicate when he realized that he was now in the whirlwind.

“Monsieur Barba? Follow me, please,” a nervous-looking intern, probably still in school, motioned for him to follow. He was handed a note as they walked. “Agent Vargas will meet you in that room,” he pointed to the note, “and asks that you turn off your mobile.” The two stopped by the bank of elevators that Barba had just exited ten minutes prior. “Good-bye!” the intern said before hurrying off again.

Rafael guessed that the intern was scared of Agent Vargas, though the thought that it was he who was feared did briefly cross his mind. In no time, he arrived at the requested room and waited, though it didn’t take nearly as long as one might hope when in a new environment. Soon, a small Latina came through the doors, head high and smart shoes tapping the tile floor. Rafael quickly stood up.

“Mr. Barba, bienvenido. Please, have a seat,” she gestured after shaking his hand.

“Gracias, Agente Vargas,” he replied, unconsciously switching to their shared native tongue.

“Now, I know you already went over your case history with our agents in New York, but there are still questions that must be answered,” she told him in Spanish as she took out pages from the folder she had been carrying and laid them out on the table.

“Questions about…Baby Drew?” His mouth went dry.

“Yes. Now I know there was a trial and you were acquitted, but the fact that you were the one to turn off his life support did raise some questions. Could you please tell me your side of the story, in English, please,” she asked, pulling up an audio recording app on the tablet computer she held in her lap.

“Of course,” came his reply, and, after taking a moment to steel himself and indicating he was ready, she started the app and he relayed the entire story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Raúl Esparza is bisexual in real life, so I made Barba bisexual in my story.


End file.
